Calderón and Obama's First Talk

January 13, 2009

In the wake of an election cycle that saw Barack Obama voice support for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the soon-to-be U.S. president met with Mexican head of state Felipe Calderón Monday. The encounter continued the tradition of a pre-inauguration chat between incoming U.S. leaders and Mexican presidents. Along with trade, Obama and Calderón were expected to talk about the drug cartel violence that threatens to spill into the United States and the ongoing need for Washington to push through immigration reform. Their meeting comes as AS/COA’s Trade Advisory Group (TAG) releases Building the Hemispheric Growth Agenda: A New Framework for Policy, a report that details “ways to reignite trade and integration with Latin America even during troubled economic times.” 

As Bob Moon reported on Marketplace, “There are some real bragging rights attached to being the first country to meet with the incoming American president. China wants that honor. Canada does, too. But the winner is Mexico.” However, during last year’s U.S. campaigns, there were signs that relations between Calderón and an incoming Democrat could be troubled. As Obama and rival Hillary Clinton vied for the nomination, they placed they renegotiation of NAFTA on the table as a possibility. Calderón warned against the idea in April, saying the 15-year-old trade agreement helped create jobs in his country, slowing illegal emigration to the United States.

Since then, the globe got caught up in an financial hurricane. The two leaders met as they hope to launch economic stimulus packages to boost the ailing economies in each of their respective countries. After their private meeting at Washington Mexican Cultural Institute, Obama described U.S. relations with Mexico as “critical” to the economy. La Opinión notes that the meeting comes as the United States and Mexico “are more interdependent than ever before.” Mexico serves as Washington’s third-largest U.S. trading partner, with two-way trade reaching close to $347 billion in trade in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

AS/COA’s new TAG report recommends that the new U.S. administration focus on deeper integration and economic ties, not just with Mexico, but with all of the Americas: “Despite hemispheric currents that hinder forward momentum, trade remains one of the most effective tools available to build and support economic development and growth with equity.” In a related interview with AS/COA Online, international trade expert James Bacchus says the president-elect “needs to explain to the American people that trade is an indispensable part of any economic recovery we hope to have.”

When Calderón and Obama met, Mexico’s deteriorating security situation was also probably a main topic. While the deployment of Mexican troops has led to large-scale arrests and narcotics seizures, the drug war claimed twice as many lives in Mexico in 2008 over the prior year. The National Drug Intelligence Center identified Mexican drug-trafficking cartels as “the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.” In an op-ed for the Dallas Morning News, Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, says that concerns about drug cartel violence “is likely to be front and center” at the meeting. But he also suggests that the president-elect and Calderón consider ways to partner on issues ranging from energy to economic stimulus to immigration.

Read a recent AS/COA analysis exploring the spreading tentacles of Mexico’s drug cartels. An AS/COA update explored the Merida Initiative, a multimillion dollar project aimed to curb drug smuggling and related crime in Mexico and Central America.

Learn more about AS/COA's Trade Advisory Group.

Send questions and comments for the editor to: ascoa.online@as-coa.org.

See more in:  United States, Mexico, North America, U.S. Policy, Trade & NAFTA, Security, Immigration & Remittances, Economics & Finance